Need a new character for tomorrow night's Adventurer's League, looking for options.

[oxybe]

Due to ideological differences in party management practices, my dwarven druid decided to pack up shop call out for any current members looking for a way out and pulled a littlest hobo, setting out to go help some other town with their problems. This "I am changing my character" came about after it was pretty clear that if I kept playing a character with morals and ethics I would always be butting heads with the murderhobo sorceror, doubly so when our monk died just earlier with no chance for revival.

So I decided instead of fighting the murderhobo insanity, I'll join it in running roughshod inside the asylum that has become our little Adventurer's League.

So before I settle on anything, I'm looking for options on a mechanically interesting characters to play. Something that has options on how it deals with situations but won't become a drain on party resources. I can figure out a backstory or something later, I just want something that would be fun to actually play.

We're level 3, standard stat set (15,14,13,12,10,8). As mentioned, it's using Adventurer's League rules so any of that content also applies.

Party consists of a:
Human Sorc
Halfling Rogue
Goliath Paladin
Genesai Ranger

I'll also admit that at this point i'm not very familiar with 5th ed. I've read the PHB and know the gist of the system but I'm still fiddling around with the knobs and dials, trying to get an idea of what works and what doesn't, as I've only played three sessions.

So right now I was thinking of a Warlock or a level or two of warlock, but i'm open to pretty much anything that plays interestingly.

[Daishain]

Looks like the party has its bases covered pretty well, so just pick whatever looks interesting to you. A Great Old One Warlock that is at least half insane already could be quite fun in that group.

[MrStabby]

Well there are a lot of different things you could do.

Cleric or Bard is one option. It gives you options in melee as well as sitting back and casting spells. It gives versatility and is something that is not in your part already. The buffs it can give are pretty good.

Sociopathic Druid may work, depending on the spells etc others have. If you need control and such like this can help. At low levels if you go moon druid then wildshape is awesome.

Warlock is another good option but the most powerful are also probably the most boring. If you sit back and blast with eldritch blast you don't actually have many meaningful choices. You will do respectable damage and you will still have utility out of combat but in combat you are a bit one dimensional. I would suggest a bladelock is actually by far the most fun build - Monk as an extra level can be pretty good with low stats so you can focus on dex as an attribute early on (and couple it with things like pole arm mastery and a quarterstaff). Alternatively you could go Dwarf, Nature Cleric, Warlock dropping both Str and Dex pretty low but ultimatly adding both Wis and Cha to your damage. This could then be quite fun to roleplay as a very unusual martial character (healing spells/crucial buffs recharging on short rests are also quite nice for endurance (and whilst hex is pretty great you may only want to cast it out of a lvl 1 slot sometimes)).

[Person_Man]

Given the parameters, I personally would probably go with Trickery Cleric.

You can screw with enemy's via Disguise Self and Charm Person (and eventually Dominate Person and Modify Memory).

You can sneak around with the Rogue and Ranger using Pass Without Trace (and eventually Invisibility)

You can fight on the front line with Spiritual Weapon and Mirror Image and Bless (and lots of other buffs for yourself and/or allies)

You can help out the Rogue a lot with Guiding Bolt.

You can help out with Skills via Guidance, Blessing of the Trickster, and Enhance Ability.

You can heal.

Eventually you can have undead or conjured minions.

The only issue is that you can't do all of those things at once. Your spells are limited. But you can change out your options each day, and thus try out a lot of different things.

[Shining Wrath]

I'm feeling the necromancer if you guys are going full murderhobo. You'll bring the utility casting of the wizard, sounds like there will be lots of corpses for you to work with, you can supplement the sorcerous blasting with some of your own, help the Rogue with Invisibility and Silence, and so on. I guess it depends on whether or not your Paladin or Ranger will object to skeletons.

[oxybe]

A GOOlock was my initial plan, actually, but I figured why not ask around for more options!

Playing another druid after dropping out a druid seems kindof in bad taste. It's an option for sure, but I'd like to dip my toes into something a bit different then another moon druid :smallsmile:

Cleric is an option however I'm simply not familiar with the gods of Forgotten Realms. Reading the appendix B, the trickery gods of Forgotten Realms are Cyric, Mask & Shar but I have no idea how a cleric of them would act or what they would know. It's not off the table however, I just need more information on the preisthood of these gods and an idea on how to play them.

For wizard, I doubt the ranger would be against skeletons. I spoke to his player over the weekend (he works the local convenience store and introduced me to the Adventurer's League group) and he's planning on being more of a tracker-mercenary then a "frolics with the druids" type. The Paladin I'm still not sure about, he's very "on-the-fence" and getting a feel for things and the character as the player is rather new to TTRPGs as a whole. He's a paladin of a war god (again: not too familiar with FR so don't ask me which war god) so he's rather gung-ho about putting things to the sword but our only encounter with undead has been... well unique to say the least, so I really can't say how he'd feel about marching around with an army of skellybobs.

You guys got me thinking of two possible builds right now: Bardlock (Bard 1 / Warlock 2)?

Human Variant

HP:24 (3d8 HD)

Str 8
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 16

Feat
-Moderately Armored or War Caster, kind of unsure which

Skills (Criminal Background)
-Deception (background)
-Stealth (background)
-Perception (bard)
-Sleight of Hand (bard)
-Investigation (bard)
-Performance (human)

Tool proficiencies
-Guitar
-Fiddle
-Drum
-Deck of cards
-Thieves' tools

Cantrips
-Mage Hand (bard)
-Mending(bard)
-Eldritch Blast (warlock)
-Prestidigitation(warlock)

Level 1
-Cure Wounds (bard)
-Detect Magic (bard)
-Disguise Self (bard)
-Sleep (bard)
-Unseen Servant (warlock)
-Comprehend Language (warlock)
-Hex (warlock)

Invocations
-Devil's Sight
-Misty Visions


Possible Necromancer 3?

Human Variant

HP:20 (3d6 HD)

Str 8
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 16
Wis 12
Cha 10

Feat
-War Caster

Skills (Sage Background)
-Arcana(background)
-History (background)
-Medecine (Wizard)
-Religion(Wizard)
-Perception (Human)

Cantrips
-Mage Hand
-Prestidigitation
-Chill Touch

Level 1
-Chromatic Orb
-Detect Magic
-Mage Armor
-Shield
-Sleep
-Charm Person
-Disguise Self
-Comprehend Languages

Level 2
-Invisibility
-Scorching Ray

[Rowan Wolf]

On deities the Basic Play document adds Leira, goddess of illusion (CN) and Tymora goddess of good furtune (CG) to the list of gods of trickery.

[MrStabby]

You might get some use out of an illusionist to help cover up the fact you have killed people, to kill people whilst disguised or to generally hide what you have done.

A diviner could be fun to try and find your murdertargets but you might be stepping on the toes of your trackerranger there.

[8wGremlin]

I can recommend Human Cleric 1 Life domain, Warlock 2 GOO, takes magic initiate : druid and picks up shillelagh and goodberry
goodberry with life domain heals 4hp according to AL/sage

get Warlock 3 take Tome, and the invocation: ancient book: allows you to gain any ritual spells, just have to find it.
pick up find familiar: you're now able to cast heals through your familiar, preferably an Owl, due to its no provoking flight.

Have reasonable AC (heavy + shield), can fight melee with Shillelagh, ranged with Eldritch Blast.
Cure, Bless are domain spells, so you can prepare other cleric spells; or get more hex's out per day.

Skills: take Perception (from variant human) and don't look back.... (see what I did there)

I find it quite versatile and fun.

[Easy_Lee]

Given the parameters, I personally would probably go with Trickery Cleric.

You can screw with enemy's via Disguise Self and Charm Person (and eventually Dominate Person and Modify Memory).

You can sneak around with the Rogue and Ranger using Pass Without Trace (and eventually Invisibility)

You can fight on the front line with Spiritual Weapon and Mirror Image and Bless (and lots of other buffs for yourself and/or allies)

You can help out the Rogue a lot with Guiding Bolt.

You can help out with Skills via Guidance, Blessing of the Trickster, and Enhance Ability.

You can heal.

Eventually you can have undead or conjured minions.

The only issue is that you can't do all of those things at once. Your spells are limited. But you can change out your options each day, and thus try out a lot of different things.

I agree with this idea for your party. Your team looks to be lacking many if the things a Cleric would bring.

That said, trickery clerics are among the more difficult classes to play well. You may not enjoy managing all of the different resources and spells that they have available.

A blade-pact, Fey patron warlock would be a similar kind of character, doing many of the same things while having an easier time with resource management (short rests are easier to come by, and many of your abilities are always on). Blade warlocks are not as good at being team players as clerics, have a harder time with their attributes (can't afford as many feats), and peak early for effectiveness. However, all of those things may actually work in your favor based on your description of the others.

Lightfoot Halfling starting with 16 DEX, 16 CHA, 13 CON and looking to pick up devil's sight, hungering / thirsting blade, and the invocation that lets you go invisible in shadows is my recommendation. Resilient CON would be a good feat choice somewhere down the line, and with a rapier for your weapon and a free offhand you won't need war caster.

[oxybe]

@Easy_Lee
Resource management isn't a problem for me, as in our Wednesday pathfinder game i'm a 15th level witch. I usually play the caster types so managing a selection of at-will and daily abilities isn't new, I'm just getting used to 5th ed's particularities.

The biggest issues with playing clerics or wizards, mechanically speaking, is foresight rather then managing your resources. If you have it and can prepare your spells accordingly, you're golden. If you fail to choose the right spells for the day, you're support at best.

With the halfling bladelock i'd be scared to thread on the rogue or ranger's niche of sneaky+range/stabby. While the PCs don't really play well together, the players at least try, which was my motivation to change character: instead of playing a PC who would be antagonistic towards their murderhobo ways, play one that would at least gleefully follow along and paint the dungeon red with them. A party that slays together, stays together.

Once I hit 5th level though, I definitely will be thinking about picking up One with Shadows. I'm a bit curious though: let's say it's midday currently and if you were to cast Darkness on yourself then activate One with Shadows to go invisible, then stop concentrating on Darkness, do you stop being invisible as you're in full sunlight, or do you stay invisible? the conditions to go invisible require dim light or darkness, while the "breaks invisibility" requires you to move, take an action or a reaction.

@8wGremlin
For Life domain cleric, I don't think any of the Life domain granting deities would like me hanging out with these folks. Remember that a neutral leaning on good druid with morals found them repulsive enough to up and leave. I couldn't imagine myself trying to roleplay a good cleric getting along with them (and only the good FR deities get the life domain it seems).

The heals through pet is actually a pretty neat concept though, and something I didn't think of at all: If i do go bard/lock I think I might do that, grabbing tome pact and the ancient secrets or chain pact for the better imp/quasit/sprite familiar selection and have it use it's invisibility to spread the Cure Wounds around. Thanks for the tip!

Same with the goodberry+life domain. Wow, that's some potent stuff.

@MrStabby
Illusions are fun and many people overlook their more practical uses above simply making not-dragons appear out of nowhere, like making convenient hiding spots or fake walls appear. Hiding a few bodies in a pantry and illusioning them to look like bags of flour for an hour or so will oftentimes give you the time needed to do your dirty deeds and escape unnoticed for a bit, doubly so if you cleaned up any mess with prestidigitation beforehand.

Divinations are still nice to have on hand though if you need a quick "magic 8-ball" answer. Never overlook the option of asking a higher power "is this dumb?" or "is it dangerous?": they can see beyond that door.

@Rowan Wolf I doubt Tymora, a good-aligned goddess of good luck, would be too pleased with my party... If anything I would be spreading the worst of luck, lol. But thanks for pointing them out, I must have overlooked them in the appendix, if they even appear there. I do like playing tricksy characters, so I'll keep it in mind in case of a TPK or new campaign.

[Easy_Lee]

Got it, I was trying to think of a character who would be relatively safe in a party full of murderhobos. For whatever reason, I found myself thinking you wanted a somewhat roguish, dark & deceptive type.

In terms of what the party lacks, I think that some form of non-evoker wizard would do well. They have the largest spell lists, ritual casting, and can solve problems that your party probably can't. They seem to have the damage under control, so an enchanter, illusionist, or diviner (as suggested) would be good.

And trickery cleric is definitely a good option if you're used to the resource management.

[oxybe]

Yeah, as I said before: Trickery cleric isn't entirely off the table but I'm just not familiar with the FR gods enough to really play a clergyman in the setting, unless i end up playing a Cleric in class only: someone gifted with the spellcasting, but isn't actively doing the whole "holy man" act, but rather his ideals and the god's just happen to align juuuuuuust right and the god decided on a whim "eh, why not." and then poof: new cleric. At that point I need to figure out the Trickery deity of murderhobos.

And yeah, I do agree that they have the DPR down, which is why i'm looking for something with a few more options betwen "Pew" and "Pew". Between the sorc's evocations and the paladin's two-handed weapon, plus the occasional sneak attack from the rogue, and now that we get to add a ranger+mark to the mix, well...

Playing a necro/illusionist would allow me to gift the rogue with invisibility to make her job easier and haste up party members once level 5 hits. Transmutating the party could also serve as a force multiplier when used correctly.

Lots of stuff you and others mentioned didn't immediately click on a first or quick reading. Simply discussing things with others gets the brain gears spinning, so it's a great help.

[Ghost Nappa]

You've got a Controller, a Single-Target Burst Damage Dealer, a Tank, and a...Gensai Ranger? Uh...probably Water I guess.

With your Druid leaving, you still need a Healer. Since you said picking a different Druid would be in bad taste, Cleric and Bard are probably you're next best bets. They're both Versatile Spellcasting generalists who can support the party in a variety of ways or go in and wreck things themselves.

[HockeyPokeyBard]

A lot of people forget about the fighter because it used to be so pathetic. But for options in a battle I strongly recommend Battlemaster. It is phenomenal in combat and can be irreplaceable in a party dynamic. On the other hand they do generally gravitate towards party leader since they end up calling all the shots in battle and that just seems to carry over into social situations as well. So that's something you'd need to consider. Although you lack options outside of combat, you are going full murderhobo, so I doubt it'll make a difference.

[Safety Sword]

Cleric is an option however I'm simply not familiar with the gods of Forgotten Realms. Reading the appendix B, the trickery gods of Forgotten Realms are Cyric, Mask & Shar but I have no idea how a cleric of them would act or what they would know. It's not off the table however, I just need more information on the preisthood of these gods and an idea on how to play them.



Shar is the Goddess of Shadows and Secrets in FR. So, you play a Trickery Cleric of Shar who pretends to be a Cleric of any other deity (usually a good aligned one). Hilarity ensues. Religion, Sleight of Hand and Deception checks are your friend.

Edit: And you just play the character as a spy. Because Shar.